Stanbic Bank angles for tobacco season spoils

FINANCIAL services institution, Stanbic Bank, has positioned itself for big business through setting up nine remote branches at tobacco auction floors throughout the country.

The move is meant to enable ease of access to funds for tobacco farmers during the tobacco selling season, which is set for anytime this month.

The “implants”, as the branches are termed, would serve the banking needs of tobacco farmers countrywide following the decentralization of tobacco auction floors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tobacco sector is a key component of the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe that contributes significantly to the overall economy. The sector generates foreign currency earnings in excess of US$900 million annually.

The bank’s executive director for corporate and investment banking (CIB), Betty Murambadoro, said their intervention was a response to farmers’ needs.

She said the implants were constructed in partnership with some of the bank’s tobacco clients located at selected Zimbabwe Leaf Tobacco (ZLT), Mashonaland Tobacco Company (MTC) and Boostafrica (Boost) branches, which are set to be operational by the beginning of the tobacco selling season.

“The implants are seasonal and are set to go a long way in improving operational efficiencies as the country grapples with the relentless Covid-19, which has led to the decentralization of tobacco auction floors,” said Murambadoro.

She said the setting up of the implants at customers’ strategic sites is in line with Stanbic’s distribution strategy and vision, which seeks to help its customers perform everyday transactions at a convenient time and place.

Murambadoro said Stanbic Bank was one of the biggest financial investment players in Zimbabwe’s tobacco industry with “US$405 million offshore and US$20m onshore tobacco facilities” currently being enjoyed by the main tobacco merchants and primary producers.

Commenting, Stanbic’s head of personal and business banking, Mr Patson Mahatchi, said their initiative would help minimize transport costs for farmers and encourage social distancing by reducing overcrowding during the pandemic through the commissioning of implants.-chronicle.cl.zw